Posted on 10/13/2002 4:48:49 PM PDT by RCW2001
BY ZANTO PEABODY
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
The Anti-Defamation League's detailed monitoring of hate groups has played a critical role in helping local and federal police in post-9/11 America, a league official said Friday.
The league, which collects information on extremist groups such as the skinheads, in some cases has been ahead of law enforcement in knowing violent organizations and how they act, said David Friedman, the ADL's Washington, D.C., director.
"The work we do with police is fundamental to who we are as a group," Friedman said. "It is fundamental to our ability to follow our mission."
Speaking during the league's National Commission Meeting in Houston, Friedman said the ADL also has provided information to help almost all Houston-area police forces identify hate crimes.
When a gunman killed two people at an El Al Airlines ticket counter July 4 in Los Angeles, ADL leaders met with FBI Director Robert Mueller.
ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said his group considered the shooter, an Egyptian immigrant, a possible terrorist. But the FBI at first said the shooting did not appear to be linked to any terrorist groups.
In reports since then, federal officials have said the incident may now be considered terrorism.
When Timothy McVeigh's name first came up as a possible suspect in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the ADL already had a profile on him, Friedman said. Members reading hate-group magazines and Internet sites had come across his anti-Semitic and anti-government message.
Insight such as that undergirds the relationship between the ADL and the FBI, said Friedman.
Beyond monitoring extremists' publications and keeping a database on them at its Web site, he said, ADL leaders share intelligence with top federal officials and train every new FBI agent to recognize hate crimes.
The agency previously had been barred from monitoring Web sites unless it was investigating a specific crime. Legislation passed this year in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks authorized agents to make more general searches.
At a security conference in May, Mueller said the ADL's "insight and research into extremism has been, in the past, particularly helpful to us, particularly in shedding light on the changing nature of terrorist threats."
CIA Director George Tenet also has noted the ADL as a resource in the fight against terrorism.
Bob Martin, ADL director of security and former supervisor of the New York Police Department's Terrorism Task Force, acknowledged it is unusual for a civil rights group to have such a close relationship with law enforcement.
But, Martin said, the ADL's extensive research on hate groups is unique among organizations. After last year's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, ADL headquarters received thousands of calls from individuals and organizations wanting to know how to spot a suspicious activity and what to do about it.
As part of the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Act in Texas, prosecutors must have training on hate crimes. The ADL's regional office in Houston conducts local classes, regional director Martin Cominsky said.
"It's not a privileged relationship," Cominsky said. "We use our information to help all people. We were the ones who brought Arab-Americans in contact with the law enforcement agencies when they were being discriminated against after 9/11."
Local FBI spokesman Bob Doguim said the agency also keeps close contact with other groups, such as the NAACP, that help reach diverse communities.
The ADL is a Right Wing Hate Group monitor. Left Wing Hate Groups get donations from the same people as donate to ADL.
If they have to go to these guys, why are we paying the cops' salaries?
Because the Fredom of Information Act does not apply to ADL files. The ADL can (and does) label itself a journalistic entity, with the result that it can conduct investigations and keep files on people which would be illegal if a police organization did it. For example, police organizations cannot maintain extensive dossiers on people who have not broken any laws.
As if we didn't know that too.
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